The point being, one or more people going off the beaten track or into an unsettled area of any non first world country.

So Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, the Arctic or Antarctica. <-- Yes, some of these have quite a bit of civilization, but the story would take place in a time or place where the Western world knows little of the 'true' dangers that lie therein.

Perfect!I've got something in mind already, like Alan Quatermain meets Lovecraft! This ties in perfectly with themes of xenophobia and culture shock.
I don't know if Alaska or Siberia would qualify as well what are you thoughts on this?

" The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind. " - H.P. Lovecraft

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Perfect!I've got something in mind already, like Alan Quatermain meets Lovecraft! This ties in perfectly with themes of xenophobia and culture shock.
I don't know if Alaska or Siberia would qualify as well what are you thoughts on this?

Those work too. could even be pre 1800 North America. Tho you can't escape geography altogether, the point being people that 'know' their world going in to an unknown world.

Many ways to put it tho.

I met her, fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and not even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this cow, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach her, and then another seven trying to keep her locked up because I realized that what was living behind that cow's eyes was purely and simply... evil.

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I love the idea of using a location, but its beginning to seem like a "theme" now, though i wouldnt be opposed to using a theme.I think if it was a SPECIFIC location that we all had to write it would fall under the guise of the Fall write-off, but that may lead to some narrow(ish) choices for stories. And to the guidelines of the Fall write off, i think any sentence can be written to a specific location of the writer's choosing.

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I love the idea of using a location, but the thing is this is beginning to seem like a "theme" now though a bit, but i wouldnt be opposed to a theme.I think if it was a SPECIFIC location that we all had to write though, it would fall under the guise of the fall write-off, but that may lead to some narrow(ish) choices for stories. And to the guidelines of the Fall write off, i think any sentence can be written to a specific location of the writer's choosing.

Yeah I know what you mean it seems a little theme-driven but that can be destilled into the opening sentance that everyone can be issued.

For Example-

Foreigner. Name/she/he thought about that word. A word that now refered to him/her. He/she did'nt belong here. That sense of otherness and alienation was bad enough during the day, but when the sunset it became near unbearable.

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I'm we'll still use 3 opening sentences as normal, but in addition, we'll see how a full scene and an location works out too.

We'll have to go by feel as to how that works out prolly since if we only get like 5-7 stories, it'll be hard to see how popular it was.

As you all know, we use a 2-3 specific genre/themes in the Spring, and in the Fall, we try to be a lot more open. We still try to use an jumping off point of some sort tho. The location and opening scene options we trying to meant to be just as open.

A story in the Congo or Amazon could have any monster whatsoever even a vampire or werewolf whereas, as a theme, vampire/werewolf is just that.

In any case, HMG put forth the idea, some peeps were intrigued, so I thought we'd give it a shot. We'll have to see how it works out, but in any case, we'll still have the 3 sentences as usual.

I met her, fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and not even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this cow, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach her, and then another seven trying to keep her locked up because I realized that what was living behind that cow's eyes was purely and simply... evil.

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I'm we'll still use 3 opening sentences as normal, but in addition, we'll see how a full scene and an location works out too.

We'll have to go by feel as to how that works out prolly since if we only get like 5-7 stories, it'll be hard to see how popular it was.

As you all know, we use a 2-3 specific genre/themes in the Spring, and in the Fall, we try to be a lot more open. We still try to use an jumping off point of some sort tho. The location and opening scene options we trying to meant to be just as open.

A story in the Congo or Amazon could have any monster whatsoever even a vampire or werewolf whereas, as a theme, vampire/werewolf is just that.

In any case, HMG put forth the idea, some peeps were intrigued, so I thought we'd give it a shot. We'll have to see how it works out, but in any case, we'll still have the 3 sentences as usual.

To be honest writing to spec is a great challenge and I've come up with some of my best stuff when I've been given a frame work to work within.

Another idea for the Amazon/Congo is undiscovered species as well as "real" monsters such as the fish that flies up your piss stream into your urethra.
There's also the lost tribes thing as well.

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If we go with the whole "Dark Continent" thing, is it okay if l make prodigious use of the word "negroid"?

Just kidding, don't answer that.

Btw, lf anyone is interested, the man in my avatar, the great Robert E. Howard, wrote a string of stories that took place in wild and unexplored Africa. Many of his Solomon Kane tales are set there, and in other untamed regions of the world as well, circa 1700s...But be warned, they make prodigious use of the word "negroid".

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How about if I just write a story and if it doesn't fit, disqualify me, but enjoy the story anyway. Seriously, it's going to be a location and a sentence? Are there photographs involved? LOL! I do my best with less, even just setting the genre drives me nuts in the spring.

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How about if I just write a story and if it doesn't fit, disqualify me, but enjoy the story anyway. Seriously, it's going to be a location and a sentence? Are there photographs involved? LOL! I do my best with less, even just setting the genre drives me nuts in the spring.

No, no. There's no "AND"

You can use a starting sentence, OR the scene, OR the location.

Each one has it's different freedoms.

With the sentence, you got your opening text and you can go 180* with it if you wish.

With the scene, you first paragraph/scene is rather guided, but you could then step out into a desert a do a 180*

With the location, you have other freedoms, you could do a normally urban horror like a vampire in Africa or something.

I met her, fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and not even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this cow, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach her, and then another seven trying to keep her locked up because I realized that what was living behind that cow's eyes was purely and simply... evil.

With the sentence, you got your opening text and you can go 180* with it if you wish.

With the scene, you first paragraph/scene is rather guided, but you could then step out into a desert a do a 180*

With the location, you have other freedoms, you could do a normally urban horror like a vampire in Africa or something.

I agree. Having either a genre, location or scene setter is'nt a handicap but rather an aid to writing a decent story, makes you work that little harder too. It's like been given some basic materials and making something unexpected from it.

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Yeah, and sure, "darkness" is theme-ish when you think of the genre style set-up we use in the Spring. The sentence set-up I expect we'll always use in the Fall, and this "Full Scene" and location ideas we're trying out...

Well, I'm not trying to force a theme as specific as we use in the Spring, but more of a common thread of a starting point, otherwise the set of three sentences we'd have gotten in any case would just be all over the place.

I tried looking up verbs and adverb, but I just use them, not name them.

The concept we use in the Fall, isolated last year, darkness this year, by these I mean to give a "quality" for stories to start with that people can also go 180* if they so chose.

I met her, fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and not even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this cow, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach her, and then another seven trying to keep her locked up because I realized that what was living behind that cow's eyes was purely and simply... evil.

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I'm in. I will hopefully have a better working computer...my phone went into the wash which made up the majority of my internet traversing lately so I am pretty much without internet for awhile. But I will definitely try.